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This morning I came across an intriguing paper - reference 1 - about the relationship between vowels and music - in particular the organisation of music by pitch, timbre and scale. There are lots of striking parallels, for example between the number of vowels in the language and the number of notes in the scale. And suggestions, back in the beginning, of an intertwining of language and music. Either back in the history of peoples or back in the development of an individual, from babyhood to adulthood.

It also serves to introduce various technical terms, like 'timbre' and 'formant', which I have come across before but have trouble remembering. Also the term 'Jew's Harp', the rather embarrassing name for a sort of musical instrument of very ancient origin and very wide distribution across the world. A collection of same is illustrated, with thanks to google. The general idea seems to be to put the thing in or against the mouth, pluck the reed and use the oral cavity as a sound box - from which I associate to tuning forks. Fortunately, there are plenty of other names. See reference 2.

PS: my musical brother taught in an institution which had become far too keen on ethno-music for his taste, centred as it was on the western classical tradition which peaked around 1800. I wonder what he would have made of all of this?

Reference 1: What Vowels Can Tell Us about the Evolution of Music - Gertraud Fenk-Oczlon – 2017.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jew%27s_harp.